Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to exchanging information between hand-held electronic devices, such as electronic business cards, mobile telephone devices, touch tablets, personal computers (PC), remote control devices, and/or other devices, and more particularly, to sending different type of information from a first electronic device to a second electronic device according to which one of at least two antennas in the first electronic device is stimulated by the second electronic device.
Background Information
Many hand-held electronic devices, such as electronic business cards, mobile telephone devices, touch tablets, personal computers (PC), and/or other devices may implement near field communication (NFC) technology, so that when two such devices come in contact or in close proximity, usually no more than a few inches, to each other, can exchange information, such as business card information.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional implementation of a NFC device 100 for exchanging information with another NFC device. For simplicity, the NFC device 100 is called a friendship token 100 because it enables exchanging business card information with a friend. The friendship token 100 includes a NFC antenna 110 for transmitting/receiving signals to/from another friendship token, a NFC controller 150, which may be embodied in an integrated circuit (IC) for transmitting/receiving NFC signals from the antenna 110 and a micro controller 190 for overall control of the friendship token 100. The NFC controller 150 implements NFC protocols, data formats and functionalities according to NFC standards, which are based on existing radio-frequency identification (RFID) standards (including ISO/IEC 14443 and FeliCa). NFC allows a short range communication (about 10 cm or 4 inches) with relative low transfer rate (106 kb/s). The NFC controller 150 includes a driver/receiver (communication technology) 151 for transmitting/receiving NFC signals from the antenna 110, a memory 153 for storing data such as business card information, a bus interface (e.g., an IIC bus interface) 155 communicating with the micro controller 190, and an energy harvesting block 157 for collecting power from the radio frequency (RF) field generated by another NFC device via the antenna 110 and supplying power to operate the micro controller 190. The NFC controller 150 is also powered by power generated by the RF field.
One problem associated with a conventional friendship token is that it is limited to paying fees as a credit card or transferring business card information as an electronic business card (e.g., vCard). Accordingly, there is a need in the art to address the foregoing limitations, and thereby provide more functionalities and security features for a friendship token.